coucou French · revision 15770

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited, onomatopoeia|attested=late 11th century, Rashi's glosses, cucu|origins=la cucūlus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ku.ku/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''coucou''' ''m'' (plural coucous)^(Wiktionary)

+ ''Cucu'' (late 11th century), ''coquu'' (1557), ''couquou'' (1538), ''cocou'' (1667), ''coucou''^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989); ''cocu'' (12th–17th centuries).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|fro|cucu]], [[inh|la|cucūlus|t=cuckoo]], an expressive word imitating the bird's call, remade under the influence of that call:^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(GLLF 1989)^(Wiktionary) the second “k” was restored and the two vowels assimilated, giving “cocu” and then “coucou”.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) The Grand Robert and Littré simply call it an onomatopoeia.^(Grand Robert 2005)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ Similar imitative names are [[grc|κόκκυξ|tr=kókkux]] (the source of [[coccyx]]), Old Church Slavonic “kukavica” and [[sga|cuach]].^(DHLF 1992) Latin “cucūlus” survives in [[oc|cogul]] and Tuscan [[it|cuculo]].^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(REW 1935)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Rashi's glosses (late 11th century) have ''cucu'' for the bird, and Marie de France's ''Fables'' (about 1180) speak of people who did not know what bird made the ''coucou'' call.^(TLFi)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Latin ''cucūlus'' was already an insult for an adulterous lover, after the bird's habit of laying in other nests; that sense passed to [[cocu]] “cuckold”, while ''coucou'' kept the bird.^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) Plants that flower when the cuckoo starts to call took its name: the cowslip (''coquu'', 1557) and the wild daffodil (1845).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ The cuckoo clock is a ''coucou'' from 1832–1835.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989) About 1800 a ''coucou'' was a small public coach serving the outskirts of Paris, and also from 1914 soldiers' slang used it for an old aeroplane, then a small train.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989) As an interjection, ''coucou'' was the cry of children playing hide-and-seek (1660), a call to show one is there (1887), and now a familiar “hello!”.^(TLFi)^(Wiktionary)^(Larousse)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * late 11th century – ''Cucu'' (Rashi).^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)

+ * 1538 – ''Couquou'' (Estienne).^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * 1557 – ''Coquu'', the cowslip.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1660 – ''Faire coucou'', at hide-and-seek.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1800 – A small public coach.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1832 – A cuckoo clock (George Sand).^(TLFi)

+ * 1914 – An aeroplane, in soldiers' slang.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|cuckoo]].^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A [[m|en|cuckoo clock]].^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # The [[m|en|cowslip]]; the wild daffodil.^(Wiktionary)^(TLFi)

+ # ''(familiar)'' An old aeroplane or vehicle; a rattletrap.^(Wiktionary)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ===Interjection===

+ # Hello!; peekaboo!^(Larousse)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[cocu]]

+ * [[la|cucūlus]]

+ * [[en|cuckoo]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}